Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

My brother Rick and sister Mary Lou
compare hearing aids.
It's a family thing.

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.”
So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.

Today’s reading from the Book of Revelation is one of the most mysterious in the book. Scholars make suggestions about the identity of the two martyr but the best scholars admit we don’t know who they are.

The story seems to refer to a very specific incident, at least in part. Two Christian disciples come to Jerusalem; they preach, are rejected and killed. But the story becomes more outlandish as we’re told their bodies lie in the streets for a brief period while the citizens celebrate. And then they are reanimated and taken into heaven.

The narrative is also confused by the writer’s use of tense. He seems to describe an event that is happening (present tense) or will happen (future tense), and then has happened (past tense). So which is it?

If the science of history relies on at least two different witnesses to account for anything, we cannot call this a historical event. There is no other testimony about it. And when the story recounts the reanimation of the martyrs, an event without precedent, the skeptic will dismiss this as fantasy. 

So what do we make of it as we look for spiritual nourishment? If we cannot name the two martyrs or recall the incident of their killing, we are all too familiar with the violence that befalls Christians. In fact our tradition insistently recalls the martyr's faith and persistently urges us to imitate their courage.

Our tradition also recognizes that the age of martyrdom has never ended. Although the New Testament is a closed book and the age of prophecy has passed, the spirit of God still leads some Christians to martyrdom. 

Even this month we have witnessed the massacre of a priest and several parishioners in Baghdad, while they celebrated Mass. A group of Iraqi soldiers pursued several Al Qaida terrorists into the church and defenseless Catholics died in the melee. If the worshipping community did not volunteer for their death, they were nonetheless slain, one suspects, for being members of a minority both Sunnis and Shiites despise.

But moving beyond our own history of martyrdom, the story reminds us of the tragic violence of human life. It doesn’t have to be this way. Murder is a dreadful thing in every case, whether it happens to Christians or someone else.

Our response is two-fold. We grieve at the violence we and our loved ones and all people suffer in this violent world of our own making. And we hope for the resurrection. As we see these two witnesses rising in a cloud while their enemies look on, we remember the glory God has promised to his faithful.